This invention relates to a monitoring and control system for complex machinery, and more particularly to such a system for monitoring and controlling the operation of a piece of farm machinery such as a combine.
While the present invention may find utility in various machinery, the disclosure will be facilitated by a reference to the monitoring and control of the operation of a harvesting machine such as a combine.
In modern harvesting machinery, the useful grain is separated from other parts of the plant as the machine moves over the field to be harvested. Such combines may be either self-propelled or pulled behind a tractor, utilizing a conventional power take-off from the tractor. Briefly, such combines generally perform a complete harvesting operation from the mowing or cutting down of the plants up to and including the separation of the useful grain portions from the plants and discharge of the chaff, stalks and other non-useful plant parts.
In such a combine, a plurality of machinery elements such as rotating shafts, belts and other drive parts are utilized to power the structures for carrying out all of the operations necessary to obtain the useful grain from the harvested plants. Moreover, most of these drive parts are driven from various power take-off arrangements from a main engine of the combine machine, or from a tractor drawing the machine, where the combine is not of the self-propelled type.
Additionally, it is known that the ratios between the ground speed of the combine and various of the moving shafts and other drive components should be held at predetermined values in order to achieve a given efficiency of combining operation. In this regard, the term "load control" is often utilized to refer to systems for properly coordinating the ground speed of the combine in order to obtain maximum efficiency in the combining operation for given crop density and field conditions.
Various apparatus for monitoring the operation of combines has been proposed in the past, specific examples being shown in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 3,515,144 to Morrison; 3,583,405 to Gerhardt; 3,610,252 to DeCoene et al; 3,638,659 to Dahlquest et al; and 3,797,502 to Reed et al. Additionally, one particularly useful monitoring and control system is disclosed in the co-pending application of Whitaker et al, Ser. No. 19,287, filed Mar. 12, 1979, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,409, and commonly assigned with the present application.
With the advent of modern electronic data processing components, a number of additional monitoring and control functions, as well as improved operation of a monitoring and control system for such a combine, have become feasible. For example, combine monitoring systems, with the exception of the aforementioned co-pending application, have heretofore been specifically designed for use with a particular make and model of combine machine. Even then, due to variations in construction and operation between combine machines of the same make and model, some difficulties may arise in properly adjusting or calibrating a given monitor for accurate and reliable operation with a given combine. The aforementioned co-pending application advantageously solves a number of these problems by including suitable controls accessible to a dealer, installer or the farmer himself for adjusting or calibrating the monitoring circuitry operation to a particular combine machine. Advantageously, the present invention offers some improvement in this regard, by automating a significant portion of the required calibration.
Additionally, combine monitoring systems heretofore known have generally been designed as integral systems, incorporating a predetermined and unchangeable number of monitoring functions. Accordingly, one desirous of purchasing such a system must decide which functions are appropriate to his particular operation and choose a monitoring system offering those functions. Should this purchaser later require the addition of other monitoring or control functions, he may well be required to purchase a complete new monitoring and control system, and realize a substantial loss on the one originally purchased. Moreover, a particular operator may require a combination of monitoring and control functions which is simply not available in heretofore known monitoring systems, or is available only in conjunction with a number of additional functions which the operator does not need or require and which add to the expense of the unit.
Advantageously, the monitoring system of the invention is modular in form, permitting a monitoring and control system to be substantially custom configured for a given operator's requirements. As such, even having once configured such a system it is still possible to add to or delete from the monitoring and control functions provided, at minimum cost and with minimum labor, should the operator's requirements change after initial configuration and installation.
Heretofore known monitoring systems, while often quite effective and accurate in their monitoring and reporting of the values of various combine operating parameters, have not heretofore been capable of "self-monitoring". That is to say, it has heretofore been up to the operator to determine from the displays or other readouts of values provided whether a given deviation in a value from an expected norm indicates a failure in a portion of the combine machine itself, or a failure on the part of some portion of the monitoring system. The present monitoring system, however, makes advantageous use of modern data processing equipment to form a number of self-diagnostic functions, thereby alerting the operator to possible malfunctions in parts of the monitoring system itself.